In Wisconsin, parking on a sheet of pure ice is apparently pretty normal.
That midwestern habit may have to change: Up to 15 cars tumbled into Lake Geneva Saturday after the ice they were parked on gave way, WDJT Milwaukee reported. Luckily, no one was injured in the incident, police told the outlet, but dive teams were called in to retrieve the submerged vehicles.
Boat ramps can be very dangerous --- road salt often weakens the ice near them. @WISN12News pic.twitter.com/Phs0SyWWsR— Chris Gloninger WISN (@ChrisGloninger) February 6, 2016
Cars sinking at #LakeGeneva pic.twitter.com/A3PhL6Q3LI— Neel (@DesiMD77) February 6, 2016
The ice collapse occurred during Winterfest, an annual festival that features the U.S. National Snow Sculpting Competition, among other activities. It's thought warmer weather caused the ice to become more unstable.
Laurie Oberhelman, the owner of one of the cars that made it into the lake, was understandably upset. "We were coming in and there were a lot of cars and not a lot of parking spots, and we looked and I said oh look there's plenty of cars parked on the lake. People park on the lake all the time from what I understand so let's do it," she told WDJT Milwaukee.
"It was a bad choice."
The unfortunate incident at least made for some teachable moments on social media.
Welcome to Lake Geneva. Park on ice at your own risk. #lakegeneva #Wisconsin pic.twitter.com/sgl0cuxnOQ— Pete (@peteopolis) February 6, 2016
#lakegeneva why you don't park on ice pic.twitter.com/lsptNr6Aip— Gregory Simon (@Gmoney_simon411) February 6, 2016